Another tweet, shared more than 35,000 times, was from a user claiming his brother and sister were missing. But the image shared was taken before the attack and a Twitter user said it was actually a photo of a younger version of himself.

Grenfell Tower

In June a devastating fire ripped through Grenfell Tower in London, but the scale and intensity of the fire meant information was scarce in the first hours and days - it wasn't until November the final death toll of 71 was known.

Rumours and misinformation filled the gap. For those who experienced the trauma of a monstrous fire, trusting mainstream media and officials was difficult.

Then in September a girl called Frida Sofia caught the attention of much of Mexico after she was trapped in a deadly earthquake. But it seems Frida never existed and instead was the fictional product of collective hope in the face of disaster.

While 2018 will probably see more fake news circulating around the big stories, there are efforts to try and limit its impact. Facebook is attempting to alert users to potential misinformation by displaying fact-checked articles next to disputed stories. And Twitter expanded its rules in early December as to what is classed as hateful or harmful behaviour on the platform.

However, alerting users to fake content is not easy, with Twitter banning a crowd-sourced bot designed to warn people about fake accounts. The bot was suspended in December following a large number of "spam complaints".